Another day, another plan for an elevated public park inspired by
New York’s High Line. Following in the footsteps of
Singapore,
Seoul and
Sydney, a community group in London has now completed a design brief for an elevated green space following one of the city’s disused railway lines.
Named the Peckham Coal Line, the proposed public realm would occupy a 900m (1km) stretch of a line once used to transport coal between two train stations in Peckham, south-east London. The planned park consists of green-lined pedestrian and cycle routes running through Victorian brick viaducts before dropping down to a little-used nature reserve.
The Friends of the Peckham Coal Line (FPCL) are behind the plans, which are being developed in consultation with Southwark Council, The Greater London Authority and Network Rail – which owns most of the land and railway.
In a statement issued on their website, FPCL said: “The Coal Line would allow us to discover local history in the atmospheric shadow of grand old Victorian arches and factories with park views towards the city skyscrapers and beyond helping contextualise Peckham geographically and historically.
“This will transform Peckham. It will turn disused space into a source of civic pride that brings benefits to health, culture and business and celebrates Peckham’s industrial past.”
The group has successfully crowdfunded £70,000 (US$104,000, €96,200) to create a design and feasibility brief for the project. This is being made available to architects, engineers and landscape designers, who have been invited to team up and submit their technical vision for the Peckham Coal Line via an open tender.
All entrants must have experience working with railway infrastructure, solving technically difficult engineering situations and creating designs relating to public realm within both new and existing structures.
The deadline for submissions is 29 January 2016.
FPCL hopes the Peckham Coal Line can be integrated into the ongoing £15m (US$22.3m, €20.6m) regeneration of Peckham Rye station, which is committed to improving access to the station, creating more leisure facilities and increasing the public realm in the surrounding area.
Since fully opening in 2014, New York’s High Line – built on an elevated section of a disused railway in Manhattan – has been a huge success, attracting millions of visitors every year.
The project – designed by landscape firm James Corner Field Operations, architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Dutch designer Piet Oudolf – was itself inspired by the Promenade Plantée in Paris, which opened in 1993.
International architecture firm Arup
recently published a report declaring city planners around the world must do more to create green urban environments that promote the health and wellbeing.
The report called for unused transport links, bridges and obsolete infrastructure to be transformed into natural habitats for wildlife and spaces for human enjoyment.
